Online information

Biographical Note

Journalist, cartoonist. Minor was one of the founders of the Communist movement in the United States.

Scope and Contents

Manuscripts comprising notes, speeches, and articles, covering a wide range of social and political subjects and giving an
extensive history of the Communist Party. Many of the manuscripts relate to his work as a theoretical writer for the Communist
Party and the DAILY WORKER (New York). Subjects covered include the Garvey movement in 1924 and the League of Struggle for
Negro Rights in the early 1930s; the re-orientation of the Communist Party in 1945-1947 with respect to the South and the
Negro question generally (Minor became the Party's Southern representative in that period); the Party's general policies in
the early 1930s and 1941-1942 when Minor was acting secretary in the absence of Earl Browder, and relating to the Party's
policy toward the war following the German attack on the Soviet Union; postwar changes in the Party; the "Agrarian Movement;"
and the Communist trials of 1949-1953. The extensive clipping file covers the entire domestic political scene and reflects
the whole of Minor's career. These date from 1907 to his death, and contain considerable material on the Russian Revolution
and the Spanish Civil War. Also, numerous pamphlets and ephemera relating to the Communist Party.